Lara Magnusen

Managing Director, Private Wealth Manager; Senior Portfolio Manager at Merrill Private Wealth Management

Panelist

Lara is a Managing Director, Private Wealth Manager and Portfolio Manager at Merrill Private Wealth Management. She is responsible for advising, crafting, and implementing investment strategies for high-net-worth families, individuals, foundations, and privately held businesses. Lara also leads the team’s investment committee.

Before joining Merrill, Lara served as an investment specialist and Managing Director at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Previously, she was a portfolio manager for several alternative investment mutual funds at Altegris Advisors, where she was also the firm’s head of investment strategy. Lara’s career dates back to 1999 and includes serving as a junior portfolio manager for an L.A.-based credit hedge fund and as an analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co. She holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA®) designation and is a member of several women’s investment groups. Lara also holds the California insurance license. She earned a B.A. in economics with a minor in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley, as well as an M.B.A. from the University of California at San Diego.